Computer-implemented method for custom designing a heat sink

Abstract

According to an embodiment a method is disclosed for designing a custom heat sink for exchanging heat with a component with a fluid medium comprising the steps of generating a mesh (201) of a patterned heat sink (100-102) comprising elements defining a discretized shape of a volume (202) enclosing the patterned heat sink containing a set of repeating massive patterns assembled on a base plate; generating a heat map of the mesh by imposing a thermal load thereby identifying thermal spots; iteratively solving until reaching a convergence criterium fluid flow equations and energy equations imposed on the mesh through a topology optimization method by minimizing a global performance function through minimizing of local gradients of the elements thereby determining a local contribution per element to an overall performance of the heat sink; omitting patterns having a local contribution below a first predefined value thereby obtaining the custom heat sink.

1 . A computer-implemented method for designing a custom heat sink for exchanging heat with a component with a fluid medium, the method comprising the steps of:
 generating a mesh of a patterned heat sink, said mesh comprising elements defining a discretized shape of a volume enclosing the patterned heat sink, the patterned heat sink containing a set of repeating massive patterns assembled on a base plate;   imposing a thermal load of the component on the mesh;   iteratively solving a fluid flow equation and an energy equation until reaching a convergence criterium, wherein the fluid flow equation and the energy equation are imposed on the mesh through a topology optimization method by minimizing a global performance function through minimizing of local gradients of a gradient field of the performance function, the local gradient determining a local contribution per element to an overall performance of the heat sink, wherein the performance function evaluates the overall performance of a current iteration of the heat sink by evaluating at least one of a temperature, thermal resistance, and pressure drop of the current iteration of the heatsink;   wherein, an iteration of the iterative solving comprises one of:
 omitting a pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution below a first predefined value, 
 adding a previously omitted pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution above the first predefined value, and 
 expanding a pattern with portions of adjacent void space having a local contribution above a second predefined value, 
   thereby obtaining a next iteration of the custom heat sink.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 1 , wherein the volume contains the set of repeating massive patterns. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 1 , wherein the volume contains the set of repeating massive patterns and the base plate. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 1 , wherein the volume contains void regions between the massive patterns. 
     
     
         6 . (canceled) 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method according  claim 1 , wherein the topology optimization method comprises one of the group of a density method, a level set method, and/or a shape optimization method. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 1 , wherein the elements comprise one of the group of a volume element, a finite element, a boundary element, or a finite difference. 
     
     
         9 . The computer implemented method according to  claim 1 , wherein the fluid flow equations comprise a momentum equation, and/or a continuity equation, and/or a pressure equation, and/or a constitutive equation. 
     
     
         10 . The computer implemented method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 designing a container comprising the custom heat sink, wherein the container comprises an inlet and an outlet, wherein the container further comprises a means to guide the fluid medium from the inlet to the outlet for exchanging heat with the component, and wherein the solving step further comprises minimizing or limiting a pressure drop of fluid medium between the inlet and the outlet to a predefined value.   
     
     
         11 .- 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A method for providing a heat sink, the method comprising:
 providing a conventional heat sink; and   adapting the conventional heat sink, wherein adapting the conventional heat sink comprises
 generating a mesh of a patterned heat sink, said mesh comprising elements defining a discretized shape of a volume enclosing the patterned heat sink, the patterned heat sink containing a set of repeating massive patterns assembled on a base plate; 
 imposing a thermal load of the component on the mesh; 
 iteratively solving a fluid flow equation and an energy equation until reaching a convergence criterium, wherein the fluid flow equation and the energy equation are imposed on the mesh through a topology optimization method by minimizing a global performance function through minimizing of local gradients of a gradient field of the performance function, the local gradient determining a local contribution per element to an overall performance of the heat sink, wherein the performance function evaluates the overall performance of a current iteration of the heat sink by evaluating at least one of a temperature, thermal resistance, and pressure drop of the current iteration of the heatsink; 
 wherein, an iteration of the iterative solving comprises one of:
 omitting a pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution below a first predefined value, 
 adding a previously omitted pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution above the first predefined value, and 
 expanding a pattern with portions of adjacent void space having a local contribution above a second predefined value, 
 
 thereby obtaining a next iteration of the custom heat sink. 
   
     
     
         17 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing system to:
 generate a mesh of a patterned heat sink, said mesh comprising elements defining a discretized shape of a volume enclosing the patterned heat sink, the patterned heat sink containing a set of repeating massive patterns assembled on a base plate;   impose a thermal load of the component on the mesh;   iteratively solve a fluid flow equation and an energy equation until reaching a convergence criterium, wherein the fluid flow equation and the energy equation are imposed on the mesh through a topology optimization method by minimizing a global performance function through minimizing of local gradients of a gradient field of the performance function, the local gradient determining a local contribution per element to an overall performance of the heat sink, wherein the performance function evaluates the overall performance of a current iteration of the heat sink by evaluating at least one of a temperature, thermal resistance, and pressure drop of the current iteration of the heatsink;   wherein, an iteration of the iterative solution comprises one of:
 omitting a pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution below a first predefined value, 
 adding a previously omitted pattern or part of a pattern having a local contribution above the first predefined value, and 
 expanding a pattern with portions of adjacent void space having a local contribution above a second predefined value, 
   thereby obtaining a next iteration of a custom heat sink, wherein the custom heat sink is for exchanging heat with a component with a fluid medium.   
     
     
         18 . (canceled)